The practice of painting and otherwise decorating fingernails and toenails is well known in the art and has been practiced in a variety of cultures in different ways for many years. During this long period of time, women have variously decorated their finger and toe nails with a variety of materials. While in some instances complex and even costly materials including decals, hand painted images, gold leaf or even precious stones have been utilized, the majority of nail decorating involves coating the nails with a high luster paint-like generally referred to as "nail polish".
The process of "polishing" nails is to some extent a misnomer in that the process is more correctly likened to a painting process. This nail polishing process is deceptively simple in its description but is often subject to a substantial skill requirement to provide satisfying results. For the most part, the process of polishing and painting nails involves initially cleaning the nails and removing all previous nail polish. An additional step of filing and shaping and trimming often also is carried forward. Once the nails are prepared one or more coats or layers of nail polish are successively applied. The nail polish is usually air-dried and the nail polish typically cures to a high luster.
It is during this process of applying one or more layers of nail polish to the prepared nails that the need for the above described invention arises. All to often, even the most skilled of nail polish practitioners or amateurs inadvertently apply small amounts of nail polish to the skin areas surrounding the nails. Unfortunately, the process of cleaning the surrounding skin and removing such inadvertently displaced nail polish may result in ruining the nail polish layer itself. Thus, substantial care and precision is exercised in cleaning surrounding skin and removing excess undesired nail polish.
In resent years, nail decorating has advanced to include so-called "artificial" nails. Such nails utilize simulated nails formed of a synthetic material which are shaped to fit upon and overlie the user's natural nails. Artificial nails are often carefully shaped to precisely fit upon the natural nail and are secured thereto with a specialized adhesive. Once the artificial nail has been adhesively secured, the above described nail painting process may be carried forward.
One vexing problem associated with decorating nails results from the manner in which human nails grow outwardly from the cuticle skin surrounding the interior portion of the nail. This outward growth creates a gap between the inner edge of the artificial nail and the cuticle. Painting natural nails is subject to a similar difficulty in that the interior edge of the nail polish layer is also moved away from the cuticle during growth forming a gap between the cuticle and the nail polish edge.
In natural nails, this gap is usually cared for during the process of removing old nail polish and replacing it with new polish as described above. In the case of artificial nails, an additional step of filling the physical gap between the artificial nail inner edge and the cuticle takes place prior to cleaning and repolishing.
Regardless of the type of nail used, natural or artificial, the above mentioned difficulties associated with cleaning excess polish from the surrounding skin of the nail must be carefully undertaken. Typically, a practitioner utilizes one or more so-called cosmetic sticks which are well known and include a simple elongated resilient or rigid member having an end portion covered with an absorbent material such as cotton or the like. This absorbent material is soaked in a solvent such as acetone and is used to carefully dissolve and remove excess nail polish.
Some practitioner's, particularly professionals, operate with greater precision using cleaning sticks which they form as needed by winding absorbent cotton material upon the ends of a variety of differently sized and shaped cleaning sticks. Thereafter, these absorbent ends are dipped in solvent and used as necessary. Unfortunately, whether used by professionals or amateurs, the process of soaking the absorbent ends of cleaning sticks in solvent is some what messy and time consuming. In addition, women often find themselves needing to touch up or even fully polish their nails in difficult inconvenient situations such as traveling or the like. Under such conditions, a container of solvent and the process of soaking the absorbent end of cleaning stick is extremely inconvenient and often difficult to perform. Further, there are certain environments in which the opening of a container of a volatile material such as acetone or other solvents is not permitted.
Accordingly, there arises a need in the art for a more convenient method of cleaning excess nail polish from the surrounding skin using a apparatus which is equally convenient and easy to carry and use.